Nine companies, 44 people charged
New York City officials charge 44 people and nine companies with cheating thousands of residential and commercial customers out of $34million of heating oil for nearly a decade. The defendants include company owners and executives, truck drivers and dispatchers. They face charges of grand larceny, fraud, falsifying business records and enterprise corruption. Indicted companies are F&S Distribution, G&D Petroleum Transportation, G&D Heating Oil, Casanova Fuel Oil, Express Petroleum, 4th Avenue Transport, All-Boro Transportation, Enterprise Transportation and Century Star Fuel.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance told a press conference that the companies would charge customers for more fuel than was delivered using rigged trucks in a practice known as “shorting.”